Van Scott Jr. of ABC News notes that "Paul may have some durability among his supporters."

"This poll added five names to the potential Republican lineup, compared with an ABC/Post poll in January," he explained. "As a group, possible candidates on the original, shorter list lost support when others were added. Paul didn't."

The telephone survey was conducted April 24-27 involving a random sample of 1,000 adults that were 32 percent Democrats, 21 percent Republicans and 38 percent independents. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

The bad news, or not-as-good news, for Paul came in a poll from NBC News and The Wall Street Journal.

The survey asked respondents to say whether they felt very positive, somewhat positive, neutral, somewhat negative, or very negative about various public figures and groups.

When Paul's name was mentioned, 8 percent said they felt very positive about the senator and an additional 15 percent said they felt somewhat positive.

However, 13 percent said they felt somewhat negative about Paul, while an additional 13 percent said they felt very negative about him.

And for all of Paul's speeches and travels around the country and his considerable exposure in the media, 27 percent said they did not know his name or were not sure how they felt. An additional 24 percent were neutral about him.

So, if you bunch these ratings together, Paul has 23 percent feeling good about him, 26 percent not feeling good about him, and 51 percent who either never heard of him or at the moment are in the "meh" category.

The telephone poll was conducted April 23-27 among 1,000 adults. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.